An entirely new land? Italy’s post-war culture and its fascist past

Scholarship has for decades emphasised the significant continuities in Italian culture and society after Fascism, calling into question the rhetoric of post-war renewal. This essay proposes a reassessment of that rhetoric through the analysis of five key metaphors with which Italian intellectuals represented national recovery after 1945: parenthesis, disease, flood, childhood, and discovery. While the current critical consensus would lead us to expect a cultural conversation characterised by repression and evasion, an analysis of these five post-war metaphors instead reveals both a penetrating re-assessment of Italian culture after Fascism and an earnest adherence to the cause of national re-vitalisation. Foregrounding the inter-relation of Italy’s prospects for change and its continuities with Fascism, these metaphors suggest that post-war Italian intellectuals conceived of their country’s hopes for renewal, as well as its connections to the recent past, in terms that transcend the binary division favoured in many historical accounts.

Testing for a random walk in Italy's inflation in the post-war period, 1947-1996

This paper investigates the unit root properties of Italy’s inflation rate in the post-war period (1947-1996). To achieve the aim of this study, the Zivot and Andrews (1992) one break test and the Lumsdaine and Papell (1997) two breaks test for unit roots are applied. It is found that inflation for Italy was a non-stationary breakpoint for the period 1947-1996. This result has important implications for econometric modeling and in understanding the behavior of shocks to Italy’s inflation.

Research paradigms in environmental education : post war reconciliation?

Methodological self-reflection is an aspect of research rigour. Yet the "politics of method" perspective has been slow to take hold in North American environmental education. While arguments have been made concerning the need for deliberation about and congruence among the political theories of substance and method, polarisation of quantitative and qualitative researchers has tended to persist. This presentation provides an outline of the issues arising at a recent forum which aimed to transcend this polarisation of research in environmental education.

Post-war migrant built heritage in Melbourne : from assimilation to multiculturalism

If place identities are created by ascribing subjective meaning to sites and buildings it follows that diverse groups will consider place meaning differently. This poses a challenge for the selection and interpretation of heritage sites in plural societies where notions of architectural significance are likely to conflict. Basing heritage policy on the premise of a shared heritage is particularly challenging when the cultural traditions of the past underlie definitions of architectural significance in a more culturally diverse present. This paper presents an introduction to research exploring the inclusion of twentieth century migrant built heritage in Australia. Through selected examples of recently recognised heritage sites in Melbourne, the paper considers how migrant heritage is included and what this reveals about the cultural traditions underlying Australian heritage discourses. The inclusion of migrant places suggests that there is an initial shift in heritage discourses where notions of architectural significance have expanded to include the history of post-war migration. However, the examples raise questions about the nature of cultural inclusivity in heritage frameworks.

People with disabilities, their rights and sense of citizenship in post-war Iraq

A one day videoconference comprising live interviews

Tribes and political representation: the case of post-war Iraq

 Ten years have passed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the political scene in Iraq is still blurry. Iraq was promoted to be the democratic example in the Middle East. The US came to Iraq to “create” a democratic system that can be a model for other countries in the region. A major factor in creating such environment is by changing the radical centralised totalitarian regime with a weak state that can give more space to building the civil society in new Iraq (Looney, 2003). Nonetheless, the socio-economic and political indicators of the newly installed political “democratic” system point to notable failures. Apart from poor socio-economic factors, the new political elite has either misused democracy for personal, ethno-sectarian or partisan gains or abused the system to ensure their long lasting presence in the decision making arena. Corruption, disconnection from electorate, poor performance and carelessness of politicians and failing state service provisions have all made citizens question the feasibility of political participation in elections. The electorate seem to have lesser faith in the political parties and blocs whose legitimacy of representation  is at stake. Noticeably, tribes have stepped forward to mobilise people as a non-partisan and independent powerful social structure. They have been active in lobbying the state as well as encouraging their members for active participation. This paper discusses the extent to which Iraqi tribes are involved in political participation. It explores their roles in active citizenship and the way they represent and mobilise their  members. It also probes whether tribes have the influence on shaping the political trajectory in Iraq.

Mapping the ill disciplined? Spatial analyses and historical change in the post-war film industry

As part of a broad disciplinary shift, from a focus on measuring the value and meaning of cultural artefacts to understanding the import of cultural flows, humanities researchers are increasingly turning to other disciplines and disciplinary practices to inform their research. For film scholars, rather than providing a reading of specific media texts and their qualities there is an increasing focus on the contextual events that shape and formulate cinema practice. This chapter is an example of how cross-disciplinary relationships, for example between Cinema Studies, Geospatial Science, Statistics and the Creative Arts can uncover new research questions and test methodologies across uncharted disciplinary terrain. It also offers an opportunity to reflect on some of the key assumptions around collaborative research, through its reorganization of academic spaces and “sites” of knowledge.